Monday, March 24, 2014

Hello my amazing family and friends!! I have been thinking
about you all and hope everything is going well.

You guys have got to send me a video of y’all getting your
wisdom teeth taken out. I want to see the crazy antics you guys do after being
knocked out from the laughing gas.

This week I went on two exchanges out of my area. I was able
to see my trainer Elder Thompson, he lives with the elders I went on exchanges
with in a four man apartment. He goes home in 4 weeks and has loosened up a lot.
I can’t believe that it was almost a year ago that he trained me in Fallbrook.
So crazy. The exchanges went great. I was with Elder Daley and he is a stud.
There was hardly any down time because their area is booming with people to
teach. It was awesome. You feel good when you feel effective in helping bring souls
unto Christ. We had a lot of fun too, being in a four man apartment is a blast.
We got to use our Spanish while I was there too, they’re in a lower income part
of the city and there are a ton of Hispanic people out and about. I love it
here, the rolling hills, the vegetation and the palm trees are amazing. I catch
myself just staring at the beauty all the time.

Not much else happened this week. Yesterday we got to be a
part of one of our recent converts, Steve’s ordaining to the Aaronic
Priesthood. I wish you could see this guy, he’s about 6 foot 3, about 300
pounds, tattoos all up and down his arms. He's a very intimidating man. He has
done some jail time in his past and has been in gangs, but found the gospel
through his niece and has completely changed his life. It builds my testimony
every day of how completely miraculous the gospel is and how it can transform people’s
lives who you would absolutely never think would accept it. It’s just amazing
to see the happiness that is in his life now, if you met him you would think he
had been a member his whole life. After we shook hands with him and Steve was
walking to his car, Elder Peterson looked at the other Elders and I and said “look,
that is a man that holds the priesthood of God." It was so awesome. I love
this gospel, there is not a doubt in my heat that it is true.

I want to thank all of you guys for the support you give me,
it gets tough a lot of the time out here, but you guys are the ones that make
it bare able and keep me going.

I love you all,

Stay true, stay strong, and look out for each other while I’m
away, alright?

Thanks for the throw backs, mom. They put a big smile on my
face. Ant is growing like a weed. That’s crazy it is a very small world in the
church, no question. I don’t think I’ve met Elder Hamblin, but I’ve definitely
heard his name among other missionaries. Yes I remember Jennifer! and wait,
Jake Larsen as is Shelby Larsen's brother, the one who played football at Bob
Jones??! What??! That’s crazy!! There's so much stuff happening back on the
home front. So Walter's getting a job at Rosie's now? That will be good for him
too. Really anything where he has to work with people will be good for him. I
just hope he gets employed somewhere soon. Man, I still can’t believe that kid
is driving, blows my mind.

Dad, sorry if it seems like I’ve been using too much of the personal
funds this month. I ran out of MSF, (missionary support fund), and had to use
some of it for groceries last week.

Mom we do have a Walmart in our area, so if you put money in
for me to buy some that would be awesome, and if you do happen to send some I
think the medium cotton ones would be better, my small shirts are gett'n kinda
tight.

I have only a few minutes because the library was pretty
crowded today so I'll tell you as much as I can.

Alright, so I am no longer in Murrieta. I am now in the
Escondido Stake, San Marcos Zone, and the Twin Oaks Valley Ward (A). We share
the ward with another set of elders. My new Companion's name is Elder Petersen,
he is from Lehi, Utah and he is the best companion I could ever ask for. He is
the district leader. He's a hard worker, he's hilarious, he's super humble, and
he's the most Christ like individual I’ve ever met. I love the guy. Our zone is
awesome, it’s full of elders and sisters that I’ve served around and they’re
all amazing. I love my new area, we don’t have very many people were teaching,
but we picked up a new investigator last week and her name is Alva, I'll inform
you more next week. Were on foot full time, so contacting has been awesome. I
love talking to everybody about the gospel, I’m not as reluctant as I was at
the beginning of my mission to talk to people, but now it’s fun, I love it. You
feel so good doing the work of the Lord. I wish I could talk more. I'll inform
y’all more next week, and hopefully it will be more spiritual.

I love you all,

Stay strong, stay true, and look out for one another while I’m
away alright?

Dad, I’m glad to hear y’all got the package, I hope the
shirts fit. I hope work gets steady and everything works out with. I can’t
believe Walter has his license... tell him to wear his seat belt. How is his
truck running? Is the monster truck show his first day on the job at the VBC?
Tell him to take a dust mask because it’s going to stink with all the exhaust
and dirt. Lizzie I love the glasses, you guys make the Usain Bolt look good.
Mom, I hope the work on your house goes smoothly and it’s not too stressful.

First thing, I am being transferred and leaving Murrieta
after 6 months. I’m going to miss it, it’s really beautiful here and the
members in the ward are awesome. I love it here but it’s time for a change of
scenery, and companion, haha. I can’t remember if I told you or not, but how
transfers work here is on the last week of the transfer on Saturday night you
get a call telling you whether or not your leaving, then on Tuesday you pack
your bags and you head to the Bobier Stake Center in Vista where everyone and
their companion in the mission goes if they are getting transferred. Then you
all meet in the chapel, President tells you your companion and your area, and
you go from there and get to work. So it keeps it exciting. Next week I'll tell
you the details of how that goes.

This week we taught Tayven the Plan of Salvation at the
Nash's house. It went great, Brother Nash and Tayven hit it off great talking
about baseball. Brother Nash actually helped us out a lot, he brought in this
awesome little wooden diagram and used some really cool baseball analogies
about how the POS and baseball relate to each other to help Tayven understand
better. He talked about how Heavenly Father is the manager and were all trying
to make it to the hall of fame and some other stuff, it was really cool. He
told us he hasn’t patented that lesson yet so we could use it, haha.

On Wednesday we were in Subway getting some sandwiches and a
teenager walked in who looked like he was up to no good. He had studs in both
his ears, baggy pants, and he just looked like a punk. He told us while we were
in line that he wanted to talk to us outside when we were done. I was expecting
the worst, that he wanted to bash or something. When we went outside, I was
completely proven wrong, he just needed someone to talk to. He was going
through a very hard time. He ran away from his dads place, his brothers are all
addicted to drugs, he's had a problem with self-abuse, he is suffering from
depression, his girlfriend just broke up with him, and some other things. He
told us about everything that he was going through and he didn’t know where to
turn, so he just decided to go outside to walk and he saw us and thought he
should talk to us. We told him about the love his Heavenly Father has for him,
how the Savior can help him with anything in his life that he's going through,
that he knows all of his pains and sorrows and that He will lift him up through
his struggles. I also told him a little bit about my past and my situation. We
invited him to church and he really wants to go, he actually told us that he is
a less active, his mom is a member, and he wants to go back. So I hope I did
all I could with Sean and I hope that he finds, for himself the light and the
joy and the strength that this gospel will bring.

I hope all is well, I love you all.

Stay true, stay strong, and look out for each other while
I'm away alright?

-Elder Daniel

One of my last times doing service at the Dempkey Ranch, I will miss work'n with the horses.

The Smedley's actually got to go to the Gilbert Temple open house with the rest of the youth form our ward, but they didn’t go to the dedication. I remember this time last year when I drove Grandma Gwen back to Arizona, I was driving down the freeway they built behind Greenfield Lakes and I could see the angel Moroni peeking over the cement wall and I had no clue they were even building a temple there, it was under construction then and now it’s dedicated. Gilbert is growing like a weed, it’s crazy. We've got to go back there to see it one day.

This week has been really good. We have received about 6 inches of rain which is about half of what southern California receives in a year and we got it in only 3 days. I can’t believe how much I miss the rain in Bama. I’ve missed the difference in temperature and variety in the weather. What is really cool about all the rain though is the entire Murrieta Stake fasted last month for rain because we were in one of the worst droughts they've ever had, and we got as much rain as we needed and then some more. There were some areas where on the street where water would pool up and trucks would ride through em' and send water flying everywhere, and we were scared some punk was going to take the opportunity to completely drench two Mormons walking down the street, haha. So we waited for the red lights and then ran past those areas.

We picked up a new investigator this week. His name is Tayven, he's 9 years old and is very interested and excited about the gospel. He's very athletic, inquisitive, and always has a smile on his face. His mother is less active and has been through a lot. Our bishop went over to their house and asked if they would like to hear the lessons, his mom wasn't very interested, but Tayven wanted to take the lessons. We taught him the Restoration at sister Baak's house on Wednesday and will be meeting with him once every week. We found out last night that Tayven has cancer.I had no idea, and it breaks my heart, how could something so terrible like that plague someone so young, so innocent, and so full of life and has so much to live for? Us teaching him the lessons has become incredibly more imperative to me. He needs the gospel more than ever in his life. It will help him through his darkest hours and lift his burdens when he feels like he can no longer bare them.

We also got to go to the San Diego Temple last Friday. I can’t wait to go back. I wish I could stay there forever. It is absolutely breathtaking. It’s the closest to heaven you can get. We were able to ride down with Brother Boaz. He is a musical composer and voice coach and we listened to his album he's working on while we drove down, we also got some free voice and public speaking lessons, haha. After the temple we went to go see his twin sister who is recovering from just got done with chemo therapy and still has some radiation she has to go through. We had a nice lesson on faith with her. Brother Boaz is the only member of his extended family, so that was pretty neat to be a part of that.

We helped Brother Young move to Santa Clarita. He's moving up there to be closer to his boys. We’re going to miss him, he has been awesome assisting us with the work and just always being there for us when we needed him. He was the one who helped us orchestrate Bhrezia's baptism. He's got a heart of gold that is hard to find in people.

So we found out that we have been doing 50% of the wards home teaching by going by members as backups to our plans that fall through.. I guess that's a good and bad thing, haha. We're super home teachers!

So transfer calls are this Saturday, I'm pretty sure I will be leaving Murrieta, but who knows, I'll let y’all know how it goes.

I love you all,

Stay true, stay strong, and look out for each other while I'm away, alright?

Not too much has happened since the last time I emailed you
on Wednesday. We had two exchanges this week. One with one of my zone leaders,
Elder Lloyd, because Elder Jacobsen is the district leader and they go on
exchanges with all the district leaders once a transfer so they can do amps,
which is just a report on how all the missionaries in the zone are progressing.
And I went on one with Elder Wilkinson again because Elder Jacobsen is the
district leader and has to go on exchanges with all the elders in the district
once a transfer so he can see how they are progressing so has something to tell
the zone leaders when amps come around. They were both fun exchanges, I learned
a lot, had some fun, and talked to a ton of people. This time most of the
contacts we had were super solid, but we had to refer them to others
missionaries in different areas because they weren't from Murrieta. One of the
guys we talked to on the street, Florentino, a Hispanic gentleman driving a big
work truck, super humble guy, and super prepared to hear the gospel, we gave
him a Book of Mormon and we had to refer him to some elders in LA because he
was just there for the day working. We told him he could start reading the book
in the car when he was stuck in traffic because he had a very long commute back
to Los Angeles on the 15.

We get to go to the San Diego temple on Friday and we also
had our zone activity today. We had our zone activity and Brother Mattson's
house. And his house isn’t just any old' house, it’s like one of the biggest in
Murrieta, it was awesome!! He works in the temple and so because our zone is
going to the temple this week he had us all get together and he told us a bunch
of different stuff so we could get more out of our visits there and told us
about different things that he's learned over the years working there. It was
awesome, Brother Mattson is one of the most humble, spiritual, friendly guys
you will ever meet. He was telling us about his property and all the things
that he has acquired and more or less, in a nut shell he told us" it’s all
just stuff, it’s just silly stuff. Nothing has brought me more joy and
happiness in this life than what the gospel offers, and nothing can
compare." It was so cool. We found out also that he actually started from
nothing and struggled for a very long time financially, but he put his trust in
the Lord, worked hard and never looked back. It was fun, after that he let us
do whatever we wanted to. He has a separate sports complex with a indoor pool,
a basketball and racket ball court, gym, and a wake board park, with a zip line
going across his property. It was fun. haha

Hopefully next week my email will be more spiritually
uplifting.

I love you guys.

Stay true, stay strong, and look out for each other while
I'm gone, alright?

-Elder Daniel

David and I are pretty Chill! He is a big help on the Ranch.

Who knew that one of the ponies was an Arizona fan!

Jeffery would've liked their pool.

On exchanges Brother Mcgregor showed us his old Camaro and his

66' Chevy Chevelle SS.. I want it. He actually picked us up for a baptism in it once.

That thing is a dream.

The Mattson's property from his sports complex, to the left is their house, to the right is their beach and wake board park.